If you have a Bible, please turn with me to Ruth chapter 3. Mark contacted me, of course, early this past week and said it looked like he would be going to Mississippi to be going to a funeral, to be ready to preach in his stead if he wasn't here. And so he's been preaching through the book of Mark, I mean through the book of Ruth. Mark has been preaching through Ruth. And he's covered Ruth 1 and Ruth 2. And he said, Mike, you can do Ruth 3 if you want to. Or you can go somewhere else in the Bible as fine, either way. I sort of wanted to keep, you know, Ruth going. We're in that train of thought, I didn't want to skip out on Ruth. So I looked at Ruth 3 and I thought, this is great, piece of cake, this would be no problem at all. Well, it was getting more and more into the later part of the week. And as I studied this passage, it just got bigger and bigger and bigger. And if I touched upon everything I wanted to say to you about Ruth 3, we'd be here till, you know, 1 or 2 o'clock this afternoon. How many of you want to do that? Well, okay, thank you, thank you, thank you. I will talk fast and I will see if we can get through this. We did pretty well in the early service, but it is a big chapter, there's a lot of stuff in here, a lot of good truth. And so hopefully I will talk fast again and we'll get through here in a reasonable amount of time. Ruth chapter 3, it's a book in the Old Testament and there are Bibles around you. I really hope that you'll get a Bible out now. It's found on page 260 of these black Bibles that are under your chairs. Because I'm going to have you look at some passages and flip around and I think we'll really enjoy this chapter. It's really a fun chapter to read and to study. So Ruth chapter 3, now before I read it and I'm not going to read the whole chapter at once, we're going to look at it in parts. I want to just get you into this subject today by reminding you of a couple of news stories, you probably heard or read or saw on TV this past week about two people who were desperately seeking love but didn't find it. One of them, a really unusual story, 70 year old man, hopefully you read about this, lived in New York a year ago was watching TV and died right there while he was watching TV. And nobody knew about it until about a week ago. They found him sitting in his chair watching the TV was still running and the air that was in his apartment was so dry that it basically mummified the guy. No one checked on him for a whole year can you believe it. A man desperately needing love never found it. The other story is probably very familiar to everybody, her name Anna Nicole Smith. A very sad and tragic tale of a woman who I believe was desperately seeking love and unless she found it in her very last moments, apparently she never found it either. You know, it doesn't have to be that way for a human being and today I have good news for you. We're going to read a story about three people who desperately needed love and found it. And it wasn't just your ordinary garden variety kind of love, it was a bold love, a love that is non-judgmental, selfless, unexpected, unconditional and sacrificial. It's the kind of love that God has for us and that He wants us to have for other people around us. And that's what I mean by bold love. That's the name of my message today and that's kind of going to sort of guide us through our study of Ruth chapter three. Before we read it, let me summarize it because I suspect some of you have not been here at all the last couple of weeks for the study of Ruth. Ruth is a great story consisting of four chapters. Two weeks ago, we looked at Ruth chapter one, let me tell you what happened. We met the main characters, their names were Naomi, her husband Elimilek and their two sons Maulun and Killian. They lived in Bethlehem. Unfortunately, a famine came upon their land and they had to go to Moab on the eastern side of the Dead Sea. Over there in Moab, fortunately, they found wives for the two sons Maulun and Orpa. Maulun found Ruth and Killian found Orpa. Unfortunately however, all three of the men died while in Moab Elimilek, Naomi's husband and Maulun who was Ruth's husband and Killian who was Orpa's husband. Naomi decided after the famine had left Bethlehem to return to her homeland. Orpa stayed behind in her homeland of Moab, but Ruth decided she was going to accompany Naomi back to Bethlehem and that's what she did. She lived with Naomi and cared for her there. Then we found in chapter two last week that Ruth meets the other main character of this wonderful story. His name is Boaz. He happens to be a relative of Naomi's dead husband Elimilek. And Ruth found Boaz while cleaning in his barley fields. Well Ruth's love for Naomi had preceded her and Boaz has already heard about Ruth's kindness toward her mother-in-law, the fact that she would leave her homeland of Moab and go all the way to Bethlehem and stay with her and live with her there as widows. So Boaz tells Ruth to stay in his fields from then on and he's going to provide for her needs and take care of her. While Ruth goes back home that day and tells Naomi that she met Boaz, Naomi was very glad about that because she knew that Boaz was related to her and Ruth stayed and continued to care for Naomi. And then we arrive at Ruth chapter three. Now this is a fantastic chapter. It almost reads like a little bit of a soap opera. Someone could even misread it as a story about a matronally matchmaker, a stunning seductress and a prosperous playboy. But if they read that chapter that way, they would be way off because Ruth chapter three is really a story about bold love. And so to break that open, what we're going to do is look at three sections of it, first Naomi, then Ruth, then Boaz, put them all together and decide what we've learned about bold love. So let's get started. Chapter three versus one through four of this wonderful book, chapter three, beginning at verse one. It says, one day Naomi, her mother-in-law, that is Ruth's mother-in-law, said to her, my daughter, should I not try to find a home for you where you will be well-provided for? Is not Boaz with whose servant girls you have been, a kinsman of ours? Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. Wash and perfume yourself and put on your best clothes, then go down to the threshing floor, but don't let him know that you're there until he is finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, note the place where he is lying, and then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do. I want you to notice this morning how bold Naomi is in these verses. You might not have captured all of it because a lot of it's based on their culture, but I'm going to try to help you out to understand it. But Naomi is being very bold. She wants to find Ruth two things, a home and a husband. She says to Ruth, basically, Ruth, here's what I want you to do. I want you to wash up. I want you to put on some of your Jennifer Lopez fragrance. I want you to dress in something kind of pretty. She didn't have a lot of pretty because they were pretty poor. But I want you to go down to where Boaz will be at the end of the day down at his threshing floor. Now, the threshing floor was a place of work. This was the place where they would come at the end of the day to thresh barley. You might have heard before that the way they did that was throw it up in the air, and the wind would blow the chaff away, and down would come the good stuff, and they would gather it up and do whatever they did with barley. So this was the threshing floor, but she says to Ruth, now don't let anyone see you. Wait until Boaz has had his fill of food and wine, follow him to where he falls down to sleep, and then when you're sure he's asleep, go and uncover his feet, and lie down next to him. Now, the uncovering of feet, a lot of different theories about that. It could have been as simple as a way to make sure Boaz was going to wake up. His feet would get cold. He'd wake up. But really in that day and then that time, it was a way to make a signal, a way to signal that she wanted to sort of humble herself before him and make herself available to him to be married. That's what it was. So she says go uncover your feet and lie down next to him. That's all you have to do. Now Naomi obviously has an agenda here in these opening few verses. She wants Ruth to send this very clear message to Boaz that she wants marriage. She's interested in him marrying her. The purpose being so that Ruth would be happy and have a future to look forward to. Now I want you to grasp a little bit of what a turnaround this is for Naomi. She's thinking about somebody else for a change. In other words, it could be argued that back in Ruth chapter 1, if you were here, you saw that we saw then that she was a bitter woman and felt very empty. She changed her name to Mara, which meant bitter instead of Naomi, which means sweet or pleasant. And so Naomi has a very gloomy picture of life back in chapter 1. Well now she's thinking of her daughter-in-law Ruth in a very loving and constructive way. Why the turnaround? Why the change? Well you'll find out in a little while. But for now just file this away as an example of bold love. And let's move on to our second example. We saw Naomi's bold love. Now let's check out what it says about Ruth in verses 5 through 9 of this chapter. Look at verse 5 where we read this. Ruth answers her mother-in-law by saying, I will do whatever you say. So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do. When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down, just like Naomi had told her to. In the middle of the night something startled the man and he turned and discovered a woman lying at his feet. Who are you? He asked. I am your servant Ruth, she said. Now look at these words. These are very important words. Spread the corner of your garment over me since you are a Kinsman Redeemer. Now let's go back and think about what we've just heard. Ruth does what Naomi tells her to do and then some. She goes down to the threshing floor. Now look, this was a risky thing for Ruth to do. Here's why. Threshing floors back in the day were known as disreputable places where sexual immorality would often take place. Check out Hosea chapter 9 verse 1. Threshing floors were not very nice places many times. They were the places where the men hung out after a hard day of work and some of them were not godly men. And so here is a risky thing for Ruth to do being a single woman, a widow woman going down by herself to the threshing floor. Respectable women didn't spend their time there. And if someone saw what Ruth was doing, they might conclude that she was a loose woman, making a move on Boaz. They'd get the wrong idea. Plus, she doesn't know how Boaz is going to react to her. He might take advantage of her sexually. He might think she's a fool. He might call the cops, whatever the cops were back in that day. Who knows what Boaz will do. So Ruth is very smart. She hides from view and waits until Boaz had eaten and fallen asleep at the far end of the grain pile. And then she creeps up, uncovers his feet, and lies down next to him. Now he's asleep, the night wears on. Now you parents, I know you've had this experience because I have. I remember when our second child, David, was a little boy. He used to love to come in the middle of the night and ask me for a drink of water. And what he would do is, he would just come creeping up next to the bed and stand there and look at me. You've done this before, you know what I'm talking about, right? And I'd be asleep and then something would tell me at two o'clock in the morning, there's someone next to me and it wasn't my wife. And I would look up and there he was and I'd be shocked. You know, he'd just be staring at me in the middle of the night. And so that's probably what happens. We read in that passage that at midnight or thereabouts, Boaz wakes up and sees Ruth lying down next to him. He doesn't know who she is, so he says, who are you? And she says, I'm Ruth and then she says in verse 9, spread the corner of your garment over me, you're my Kinsman Redeemer. Now people meet each other in very strange ways nowadays. Some of you met your favorite person via e-harmony, right? I mean, that is known, that happens, it happens a lot and it's often very successful. But here is an interesting way for two people to meet and begin a relationship. But it wasn't really that odd for the day and time they lived in. What Ruth does in terms of asking Boaz to spread the corner of his garment over her was a proposal for marriage. That's what it was. Boaz knew it. Everybody in that culture knew it. To say to somebody, spread the corner of your garment over me was like saying, I'm taken with you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Even though Ruth is a Gentile, she's from Moab, as I said earlier, she knew about two things. First of all, she knew about the Jewish custom of what was called leverant marriage. The word is up on the screen there. This is what I'm talking about. The word leverant comes from the Latin word lever which means brother-in-law. It's spelled out in Deuteronomy, chapter 25, if you want to read that someday. It was the custom whereby if a husband died and leaves no children behind, but just his widow, the brother of the deceased husband had to marry his widow and try to have a child for him to carry on the name of the deceased. He's very different culture back then. Not only does she know about leverant marriage, but Ruth also was aware of the law of the Kinsman Redeemer, which is mentioned there in verse 9. Now, you're going to find out more about that next week, but let me go ahead and tell you right now a little bit of preview. Leviticus chapter 25 tells you about the Kinsman Redeemer law. Basically, it's this. Back in the days of Ruth, family members had to take care of each other. They were expected to and they did. If somebody fell into poverty, for instance, or sold himself into slavery because he didn't have any other means to live or sells a piece of land in order to get out of debt, one of his relatives was supposed to try to redeem the person out of slavery, that is buy him or her out of that slavery condition or buy the land and give it back to him because it belonged to him in the first place. So that's what Kinsman Redeemer did. But for now, just think of the risk. Think of the risk that Ruth was running in this particular encounter with Boaz. Boaz could have completely misconstrued her motives. He could conclude that she's after his money, his power, his position. So I ask you, why did Ruth do this? Why did she go in the middle of the night? Why did she risk everything to go to the Threshing floor and ask basically Boaz to marry her? Well, don't forget that we're going to read this story out of our 21st century American perspective, and we're probably going to come up with a wrong answer. We live in the day of Desperate Housewives and Sex in the City and Beauty in the Geek and the Bachelorette instead of knowing our Bibles. And so you know what most people today reading this story would conclude? Well, she's like Anna Nicole Smith. You remember she married that guy? What was his name? J. Howard Marshall. She was 26. He was 89. She married him for his money, his power, his business dealings. So we figure Ruth wants a man. She's single, he's rich, he's a man of prestige. What eligible young woman wouldn't want this guy? But if we concluded that, we'd be way wrong. That's not it at all. Ruth's primary motive here is love for Naomi. This bold love for Naomi. Now in our culture, we know that marriage usually begins with romance and physical attraction. You see that person over there and you think, wow, I'd like to know her or him, whatever. And so you build a relationship based on usually something like that. But it hasn't always been that way with marital relationships and it's not that way even now around the world in other places. For Naomi and Ruth, you've got to see this, marriage was a practical necessity. Look Ruth and Naomi were widows and widowhood guaranteed you poverty. Elimilek, he was gone, he didn't leave any insurance policies behind. There was no estate, no welfare, no social security to take care of of his widow and their daughter-in-law. The famine that had hit Bethlehem earlier. She wiped out Naomi financially. She had no brothers or sisters around to take her in. Ruth, you remember last week, had to pick up what? Left over, grain out of the fields of boats and take it back to Naomi's home for them to have something to eat. Do you understand what having no husband and no sons meant to Naomi? Having children to carry on your name back then was critical. They didn't have an IRA to leave your kids behind or leave another generation. They didn't have a home in the country to put in your will. No, this was your legacy, a child was. This was your future. It was worth far more than those material possessions. Proverbs 22 verse 1, real interesting verse, a good name is more desirable than great riches. See that's how they thought. A good name is a lot more valuable than stuff. Naomi had no name because she had no husband and no kids and neither did Ruth. So Ruth's request for marriage is another example of bold love. Well then let's quickly go to thirdly boats. We've met Naomi, we've met Ruth. Let's look at boats in verses 10 through 15. And let me read that passage for you now. Verse 10, look at how Boaz reacts to Ruth's boldness. Says in verse 10, excuse me, the Lord bless you my daughter, he replied. This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier. You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. And now my daughter, don't be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of noble character. Although it is true that I am near of kin, there is a kinsman redeemer nearer than I. Stay here for the night and in the morning, if he wants to redeem good, let him redeem. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives, I will do it. Lie here until morning. So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognized. And then he said, don't let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor with six measures of barley. Scholars think that amounted to about 88 pounds. Ruth is no petite little thing. He pours into it six measures of barley and put it on her and then he went back to town. Now I am not going to read the rest of the chapter, you can read that on your own. But let's reflect. I want you to see that Boaz does several things here in these verses. First he blesses Ruth in verse 10. He even calls her respectfully my daughter, lest you think there's any shade of sexual impropriety. He is very respectful toward her. And then in verse 11, Boaz promises her something. He says, I will do for you all you ask. And then next he compliments her as a woman of noble character. And then he drops the bomb. Now this Ruth was not expecting. He says to Ruth that there happens to be a kinsman redeemer who is closer to Naomi and Ruth than he is. That is in relationship. Now there is apparently no knowledge of this for Ruth. This was a surprise for her. But what it means is to her dismay, Boaz cannot spread the corner of his garment over Ruth tonight. He cannot marry her then and there. But he promises her something. He promises that he will talk to that other kinsman redeemer the next morning. And if that man refuses his right to marry Ruth, then Boaz says in verse 13, as surely as the Lord lives, that is a vow. That is serious business there. As surely as the Lord lives, I will do it. Talk about boldness. Now I want you to think about this though. Boaz did not have to do any of this. He was not Ruth's brother-in-law. He wasn't even Naomi's nearest of kin. He could have sent Ruth away. He could have accused her of trying to seduce him of using him for her own selfish game, but he didn't. Instead what we see God's grace doing for Boaz is that he voluntarily accepted the role of kinsman redeemer. Now just as an aside, do you know what else is bold about Boaz here? When he had the chance, he didn't take advantage of Ruth. Men, let's put ourselves in Boaz's shoes. You're a bachelor, you're in your middle years. You've got a good life, lots of money, lots of privileges, lots of people working for you. You wake up in the middle of the night and find yourself lying beside an available woman half your age. She's single, she's desperate. It feels like she's throwing herself at you. She acts like she wants you. Men, what are you going to do? You do what men are supposed to do. You do something bold. You control yourself because you honor her and love her too much to take advantage of her sexually. I want to talk to you young guys for a minute. You boys, teenagers, college students. You know what makes you a man being bold like Boaz? Bold enough to honor women and honoring yourself enough to control your sexual impulses. You wait for sex until God brings you a wife. That's what you do. That's what boldness is. That's what masculinity is. That's real manhood. And while I've got your attention, girls, young ladies, college students, females, do you know what makes you a woman being bold like Ruth, self-control, modesty, saving your sexuality for one man in the confines of marriage? Did you notice what Boaz complimented Ruth for in verse 10? Very important for you ladies. He says, you have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor, what words of compliment that is? What an honor for him to say that. Can that be said of you ladies? Boaz calls Ruth a woman of noble character. You know what girls? If you make that your goal, you will attract the right man I guarantee it. So let's conclude with a little sort of wrap up. What do all three of these people have in common? Bold love. That's what. Love that is unexpected, unconditional, selfless and non-judgmental. Naomi has bold love for Ruth. She wants her to have a home and a husband, even if that means Naomi must spend the rest of her life alone, but she's willing. Ruth has bold love for Naomi. She wants her to have a name, even if that means risking the rejection of Boaz at the threshing floor. And Boaz has bold love for Ruth. He wants her to be her kinsman, redeemer, even if that means giving up his independence. Now look, this guy has been on his own. There's no indication he's ever been married. He likes the single life, but he's willing to give up his independence and take on the obligations of a husband and father. Now we've looked at the biblical data. What are we to make of it? I want to give you a life principle this morning. Last week Mark gave you the key to the Christian life. That left me unable to use the word key. If he says that was the key, I'm not going to give you another key. I'm going to give you a principle. Here is the principle, and it's very important. There is a direct correlation between the love you've experienced and the love that you're able to express. Let me explain what I mean by that principle. I mean this, that the more you see love, the more you receive love, the more you feel loved, the more you witness love going on around you, the more likely it will be that you will be a person who is able to love others. We know this is true from our own family backgrounds, don't we? Unfortunately, there are people in this audience today who come from broken homes or they've been the victims of abuse or they haven't heard words of love and affection. Their love, the love that their parents had for them was very conditional, not unconditional. So you know what? Those people in our church who are like that, they struggle to love. They do. Parents love pierces through that insecurity and helps them, but it's hard. It's very hard. Others of us were blessed enough to have a warm and nurturing family background, where words of love were very frequent, where hugs were common, where parents made over us and were very proud of us, and that gives us a base of security. But even then, even then maybe some of us are not secure enough to really reach through the barriers and love others boldly. But the principle means that the more you see love and feel it and experience it, the better able you are to express it to others. Now let me explain this principle and why I bring it up at this point. First, Naomi, think about her. She had experienced Ruth's bold love back in chapter 1. Remember? Remember Ruth had the chance to stay in Moab, and she said, no, I'm going to go with you. Your people be my people. Your God will be my God. I'm going to go with you. Where you stay? I'll stay. Bold love by Ruth. Her sacrificial self-unconditional love turned Naomi from bitterness to sweetness, from emptiness to fullness. Love experienced, became love expressed. Secondly, what about Boaz? He experienced Ruth's bold love, too. What do I mean by that? Well, take a look again at verse 10. Look at verse 10 of our text, where Boaz says to Ruth, she's lying down next to him, he says to her, the Lord bless you, my daughter. This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier. You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. What's Boaz saying? Boaz is saying that he's witnessed love twice now. The first time was back in chapter 2 when Boaz first met Ruth, and it was told to him that Ruth had given up everything for love of Naomi. That was time number 1, but now in chapter 3, Boaz sees Ruth's love for Naomi once again. Because instead of chasing after the younger men, Ruth is asking Boaz to marry her and Boaz knows why. Boaz knows that Ruth is not after him for his money or his power or his prestige. She is after him out of love for Naomi. And seeing that sacrificial, non-judgmental, unconditional love like that of Ruth for Naomi warms Boaz's heart, and he says, yes, Ruth, I will do it. I will marry you. I have experienced, became love expressed. And then, of course, there's Ruth. She had experienced bold love too, how so. Well, this is where things really get interesting, but we're almost there, so be patient. I want you to look back in your Bible at chapter 2, verse 11 and 12, for just a moment. Ruth 2, 11 and 12, where Boaz and Ruth are having a conversation with each other out in the barley field. And then, verse 11, it says, Boaz replied, I've been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with the people you did not know before. Now look at this, verse 12, may the Lord repay you for what you've done, may you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, and here it is, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. Now we're getting at the heart of Ruth's love for Naomi. It says that Ruth had already found refuge under the wings of God. What does that mean? That's an interesting phrase. You ever think of God having wings? Well, sure enough. In the Bible, Old Testament and New, there are images of God being presented to us as a God who is like a mother bird or a mother hen who gathers her chicks under her wings and holds them tight. God is like that. Let me show you a few verses that prove this. First, from Psalm 91, it says, he who dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. He will cover you with his feathers and under his wings, you will find refuge. Beautiful words. Another example is Psalm 36, verse 7. It says, how priceless is your unfailing love. Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings, talking about God. And then one more example, beautiful from the prophet Ezekiel. God is speaking to his people and he says, when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment, literally the word is wing over you. And covered your nakedness. Now does that verse look a little familiar from our study of Ruth 3? In fact, look again at 3-9 of Ruth. Because Ruth 3-9 is wording almost just like that. It says, spread the corner of your garment and again the word is literally wing over me. Since you are my kinsman, Redeemer. Ruth had already taken refuge under the wings of her God. She was a Moabite. She was part of a disgraced people group. She was a part of a people with a family past that was disreputable and disregarded by the Israelites. Yet she had taken refuge under the wings, the shadow of God, and had experienced the nonjudgmental, unconditional, sacrificial love of God. That's why she can say to Boaz, now I'm ready for you to spread your wing over me. See the security of love experienced enabled Ruth to then love others with a bold and expressive love. I say it again, there's a direct correlation between the love you've experienced and the love you can express. All right, what are you going to do with this message today? Well, here it is. If you will let yourself be boldly loved by God, then you will find it amazingly possible to boldly love others and some of you have people that are hard to love in your circle. It could be a spouse, it could be a child, a parent, a relative, a friend, a neighbor, a coworker, a fellow student, he or she is a hard person to love, but if you will take refuge under the shadow of the Almighty, under the wings of God and feel his love, that love, that bold love will enable you to love boldly those unlovable people. You can't love others with a love you don't have. You can't be a good husband or wife or friend or parent or child unless you first been loved by your God. What does it say in 1 John 4 and 19? We love because he first loved us. So what does this mean practically? What's to take away for you? If you are a Christian this morning, here it is. Spend a lot of your time thinking about the cross and that will enable you to experience the bold love of God. Think a lot about the cross. You know, John said, I don't know, have you ever shared with him the symbolism of this cross? I don't think we've spelled it out quite yet, but let me give you a little piece of it. This cross was intentionally designed for our church. Jonathan took care of the connection with an artist up in New England someplace and here is one piece of the symbolism of this cross. You notice that the bottom part of this has two pieces of wood going up like that. That represents the empty hands of you and me, bringing our emptiness, our bitterness, our sin and our helplessness to God. And on the cross, the top part with the two pieces of wood going out like that, that is Jesus Christ reaching out his wings, his loving hands, his sufficiency to meet our need and to forgive us of our sin. So Christian think often of the cross. If not this one, the one that Jesus died on. If you're not a believer this morning, if you're not a Christian, we're so glad you're here. The fact that you'd be open to coming and visiting with us is wonderful, but I want to ask you, don't desperately look for love all your life in the wrong places. Go to the one person who will not judge you, or condemn you, or reject you, or abuse you. And that's Jesus Christ. Ask him to be your Kinsman Redeemer. Ask him to spread his garment over you, like Ruth had experienced, and he will. What did we see earlier today? Come ye sinner, poor and wretched, weak and wounded, sick and sore, Jesus stands ready to save you, full of pity, joined with power. He is able. He is able. He is willing, doubt no more. Let's pray. Oh Lord, thank you for the bold love of Ruth that really is just a picture of how we're supposed to love one another and love you. And thank you for the bold love of Boaz, which is really a picture of the love of Jesus for us, the voluntary selfless love of Christ, who nailed himself to a cross that he might put us up under his wings. Lord, would you help us to reach out and receive that love today so that we can leave here today and give bold love to others around us? We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.